Pro-Peace Means Pro-Life

“Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.” –Pope Benedict XVI in his Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace 2013: Blessed are the Peacemakers.

Normally, we tend to think of hippies and the like when someone says pro-peace but actually the Catholic Church itself is pro-peace. And so are true pro-lifers. You see, if you value peace how can you tolerate one human killing another?

Sadly, this isn’t what many people think of when they consider the pro-life movement. It’s not the face they see. Even for me it struck me as odd to call pro-lifers peaceful. Dedicated, loving, enthusiastic–yes. Peaceful?

Perhaps it’s my definition of peace though, that needs review. I suppose what I was thinking of was a utopia of tranquility, a place where everything is calm all the time. But that’s not exactly what peace is. When you ask Google “define: peace” you get back the definition “freedom from disturbance”. This definition works two ways: globally and personally. Peace can mean tranquil individuals who are content in and of themselves, or it can mean a world without violence, injustice, or grave immorality. A peaceful world is one where no individual has any reason to not be at peace. So, in a truly peaceful world no human being would kill another. But we do not live in that world…not yet, at least.

If that is truly the world we want in the future, we should act like it and work towards it. That means ending all murders, including abortion. That is how being truly pro-peace means being pro-life. All true pro-lifers want peace: an end to the deaths, the violence, and the struggle. The simple fact is abortion causes strife, which is the opposite of peace, not just in that it kills the child but that it harms the mother and can shatter her peace, and that it harms the world by preventing it from being truly peaceful.

In the end, it seems to me the world would be a lot more peaceful without abortion.